I hope they pull this off - Houdini is a cool theme, and the (non-functional) playfield seemed to have some promise. I'm a big ToM fan so another magic pin couldn't hurt! That said, man this is Sisyphus and the boulder. At least we can start to assume they've kicked JPop's ass out the door. Good lord, such a trouble-filled start. Good luck to 'em

... what... the ...F!

I was expecting to think "oh well, too bad... it's only their first pin...". But holy hell was I surprised! The art looks great, I love the steampunk theme... how did they do this in 4 months! If these guys have their act together in manufacturing, and can control costs (which in this day and age they should be able to predict to the penny), this could be a huge upset situation.

Getting this game together in such a short time suggests to me they are looking st efficiencies we do NOT see with some of the other manufacturers. They also clearly did not second guess choices after they were made, which I think is a lot of the issue with other games ("scope creep"). It seems like they just had their ideas, tested and implemented and... bam, built it!

Game looks fun, too - kind of an important thing!!

Wow... never min a million years would I have expected this would divert my attention from Alien... but boy has it ever...

Playing it yesterday, you don't notice - or at least I didn't. There is so much going on in the playfield; it doesn't seem like it but stuff was popping up left and right I didn't notice. And I watched about 10 people before me play while in line. It's like the stuff is hidden until you need it. Really cool

Joe described how they removed a post from the middle of the pops RIGHT before bringing the game to the show, and it made a tremendous difference in letting the ball travel laterally across the PF.

This apparently alleviated a 'concern' (my paraphrasing term, not his) that there was too much just up-and-down travel and not enough horizontal. I told the guys they should make a movie, not just about the drama but about how much detail went into this (and many other) pin. Best experience I've ever had in pinball. Who gets to talk with the artists themselves? That was just so great.

YES. all the craziness with the LEs and super duper champion edition versions of each game just get out of control. I am the biggest Lawlor fan in the world but it makes me sad I will never be able to justify a DI. It's just so far out of my "acceptable frivolous purchase" budget I have taken to ignoring that it exists! AP is better off - less confusing with the single (kick ass) edition